Airbnb says second-quarter revenue topped $1 billion

FILE PHOTO: A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Gabrielle Lurie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Airbnb Inc took in more than $1 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2019, the second time it exceeded that level in its decade-plus history, the home rentals company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company also said it will be launching a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign with ads running on TV and digital platforms, highlighting its hosts and promoting the benefits of hosting.

Airbnb previously said it exceeded $1 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2018. It has not provided revenue for the full year for 2018. The company is one of several start-ups expected to have initial public offerings next year.

Reuters previously reported that Airbnb’s revenue for all of 2017 topped $2.5 billion, a more than 50 percent increase over 2016. And the company has previously said that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization was positive for 2017 and 2018.

The company gave no details on profitability for the second quarter.

Airbnb said that as of Sept. 15, its hosts have earned more than $80 billion by sharing their homes and spaces on the app, and as of June 1, it collected over $1.6 billion in transient occupancy taxes.

It also said it passed a milestone of having more than 7 million Airbnb listings in over 100,000 cities around the world.

Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis